High Hopes For Next Year Regardless

I am Extremely excited for next year. I got caught up in the Doom and Gloom of this year. But coming of a good game. (Loss oh well) And with this week just to ponder and watch youtube. I have to say i am VERY excited for next year and i think WE being the loyal (because who else but the loyal would dedicate time to CU forums) .
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rSJupyTCkg&feature=related"]YouTube - Colorado vs West Virginia 2008[/ame]
CU West Virginia

OK. SO I BEG of yall to look at it this way. These two games were games where we had what we Expected to Have. And the rest of the season was a series of unfortunate events.
Place Kicker- (Somehow. heh heh) Jameson Davis PK Ques 11/28 - Knee - 11/17/08

Offensive line-Maxwell Tuioti-Mariner out for season - Knee -
-Mike Iltis out for season - Knee -
-Ryan Miller out for season - Broken Fibula-
-Sione Tau out for season - Academics -
-Erick Faatagi out for season - Academics - 10/14/08

Linebackers- (IN my opinion they are the our biggest problem this year. On a performance level. NOT injury level. But they have been atrocious)
-Nate Vaiomounga out for season - Academics - 10/14/08
-Lynn Katoa out for season - Suspension - 10/14/08
-Jon Major out for season - Knee - 10/14/08

Defensive End-Drew Hudgins out for season - Knee - 10/14/08

That's just the season ending ones. I can name off of my head,
Jimmy smith
Darrell Scott (I suppose)
Josh Smith
I mean. We have FAR more injuries than recruits. I think this year has just been Dumb Luck. OR a Crap Hand. I really don't think ANY heads need to roll. I can resign in the coaching staff knowing that they did the best with a season no one could see coming. And I am VERY proud of our players who battled through Ever Changing, and EVER continuing problems. Not only from injuries , but from US. The fans. We have been Soo critical of a beat up team. Yea were young on O. And yea so is Georgia. but the Difference between us is that THEY were able to play the season with the plan the spent an Entire off Season Building. We re-invented ourselves over each game we played.
So please. Chins up. Stay possitive. Our attitude shows to the recruits. We believed in the team last year and landed a wonderful recruit class. Lets do OUR part this year.

Me too. I really am looking to the Morgantown game. I'm a little scared because of our away record.. But I really do suppose it will be a good test for us. Good Teams Always win at home. Great teams win anywhere i suppose

True, but how many are going to be back for spring ball and play-run summer scrimmages? We certainly are going to be better and stronger. Give them more reps and more time w/Pittman and we will be a better team. That should definitely translate to a 7+ record. DL is a concern, but I think our LBs and and secondary will be up for the challenge.

Looking forward as well but I don't think the O-line will be as improved as everyone else does due to (still) the lack of experience on the O-line.

MTM and Miller and Iltis didn't get any better at football sitting on the sidelines w/ crutches.

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Experience is exactly what the o-line got this year. All the injuries are a blessing in disguise as far as the o-line is concerned. A bunch of guys who had no business playing will be that much better next year and it only creates depth. As for Miller he may not have gotten better sitting on the sidelines but he was already better than most to begin with. We're going to be able to run the ball next year, and if you can do that and control the clock you always have a chance to win.

My hopes for progress are at least 7 wins and being competitive in 3 of the 4 sure losses (Okie State, Mizzou, Texas, WVU). That TAM game will be the swing game as to whether CU can get that 8th win. The Mizzou and WVU games could be steals but I think Mizzou has the entire team (coaching and players) mentally warped and the team will still be trying to find itself in the trenches when it rolls into Morgantown.

UT's going to be an epic defeat and I'm fine with that. Hopefully that game will be on Fox sports regional or maybe no television at all.

I think with White gone will make the WVU game winnable in my opinon. They also lose 3 on the OL granted they get most of their defense back but I see no reason why CU can't win this game while WVU is breaking in a new qb.

I'm optimistic too, but yeah, the DLine needs to step up like the secondary did this year. They seemingly don't have too many players, but they performed decently. Adding to players missing this year that return next year - Ben Burney. I just hope Goree, Herrod and other step up next season.

I'd be a lot more optimistic about next year if I knew for a fact that:

A) Hanson will be the QB, and will be getting the majority of reps in Spring and Fall camp.

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Regardless of who is QB, The real issue is the OL. If we continue to struggle there it won't matter who we line up behind the center.

B) Simas, Blackmon, Smith will all be eligible.

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Smith's eligibility is in question? When did this happen? Blackmon isn't going to answer all of our questions at WR either. Simas is key though.

C) The D-Line will stop the run and generate a consistent pass rush.

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I remember people at Spring ball and Fall Camp rambling about how this was the worst D we've had since Fairbanks. And the D came out and preformed pretty well for the most part. Everybody always freaks out about someone leaving and the D always overcomes.

D) we have a new kicker.

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I'm sure Davis will be a good one. I also don't expect Goodman to just lay down and quit. I'm sure he'll be back.

E) we have an offensive identiy.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything that would indicate that any of these items will be in effect next year.

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When you don't have an OL that can block for you, you can't really have an identity. Unless that's having your QB run for his life every other play.

I'm not going to be the downer here, but I notice the one position not listed here, and the one position that is critical to winning is QB. We can have the best offensive supporting cast in the Big 12, but the fact remains, they are still a "supporting" cast. We need to work the QB situation out.

Why does everyone keep saying this? It's not like it's THAT much easier than this year's schedule.

We still play at WVU, at Texas, KU, Mizzou, at Oklahoma Stank, and Neb.

Plus CSU will be less of a pushover and Wyoming is decent.

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WV wasn't all that great this year and they lose Pat White. We should've beaten KU these past 2 years and next year we should be past the youth thing. Mizzou loses Chase and Chase. Their 2-year hoax run is over. OSU is obviously a very good team but they exceeded expectations this year, so who's to say they won't drop down a notch next year. NU, who may be on the rise, loses Ganz, Lucky, and their top 2 receivers and we get them at home. Wyoming had one nice win this year and the other 3 were against Ohio, North Dakota State, and SDSU. They're decent???